The uneven earnings benefits for men and women of skills acquisition in a virtual university

Using multivariate linear regression models, this study estimates the relationship between graduates’ self-reported skill improvements from attending a virtual university, the Open University of Catalonia (UOC), and their salaries after obtaining the degree. Our results show that graduates made considerable earnings gains and especially high rates of return to investing in a Master’s degree. Reported earnings by male and female UOC students are 31% and 18% higher than their gender-age counterparts to university graduates in the Spanish labour market. They also benefited from unintended returns in terms of enhanced digital skills, even among graduates who were not enrolled in ICT-related degrees. The improvement they reported in these skills contributed to earnings gains, but only for males. As such, acquiring digital skills for women seems to have little impact on how much they are rewarded in the labour market. This suggests that the types of jobs held by women in Catalonia probably do not specifically reward digital skills. Since UOC graduates are generally older and employed during their studies, the gains made by women may be more related to the fact that they obtained a degree that led to a promotion rather than any specific skills acquired in their studies.